Potosi, Bolivia was a site of large-scale silver mining dating back to 1545, when silver deposits... more Potosi, Bolivia was a site of large-scale silver mining dating back to 1545, when silver deposits were first discovered at Cerro Rico, the hill which overlooks the city. With the development in 1563 of a rich cinnabar mine near Huancavelica, Peru, mercury became readily ...
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies face a number of challeng... more The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies face a number of challenges in interpreting and reconciling short-duration (seconds to minutes) readings from mobile and handheld air sensors with the longer duration averages (hours to days) associated with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the criteria pollutants-particulate matter (PM), ozone, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides. Similar issues are equally relevant to the hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) where chemical-specific health effect reference values are the best indicators of exposure limits; values which are often based on a lifetime of continuous exposure. A multi-agency, staff-level Air Sensors Health Group (ASHG) was convened in 2013. ASHG represents a multi-institutional collaboration of Federal agencies devoted to discovery and discussion of sensor technologies, interpretation of sensor data, defining the state of sensor-related science across each institution, and provides consultation on how sensors might effectively be used to meet a wide range of research and decision support needs. ASHG focuses on several fronts: improving the understanding of what hand-held sensor technologies may be able to deliver; communicating what hand-held sensor readings can provide to a number of audiences; the challenges of how to integrate data generated by multiple entities using new and unproven technologies; and defining best practices in communicating health-related messages to various audiences. This review summarizes the challenges, successes, and promising tools of those initial ASHG efforts and Federal agency progress
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 2005
A number of organizations have developed acute inhalation health reference values, each with (1) ... more A number of organizations have developed acute inhalation health reference values, each with (1) a specific purpose, (2) populations to protect, (3) exposure scenarios (accidental releases, workplace, routine excursions of ambient levels), and (4) severity of adverse health effects considered in their development. The first section of this article reviews the existing values from different organizations and describes their purposes and method of development. The second part of the article provides a comparative review of how the values were derived, the critical endpoints considered for each value, the populations being protected by each value, and the potential for use outside of their intended purpose (e.g., Homeland Security, regulatory analysis, etc.). Additionally, an analysis of the acute inhalation reference values that was developed in support of the Office of Air and Radiation's residual risk assessment for hazardous air pollutants is presented and reviewed. The third and final part of the article focuses on the efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a set of less-than-lifetime reference values, along with a discussion of how that effort fits with the existing sets of values described in the prior sections.
Potosi, Bolivia was a site of large-scale silver mining dating back to 1545, when silver deposits... more Potosi, Bolivia was a site of large-scale silver mining dating back to 1545, when silver deposits were first discovered at Cerro Rico, the hill which overlooks the city. With the development in 1563 of a rich cinnabar mine near Huancavelica, Peru, mercury became readily ...
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies face a number of challeng... more The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies face a number of challenges in interpreting and reconciling short-duration (seconds to minutes) readings from mobile and handheld air sensors with the longer duration averages (hours to days) associated with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the criteria pollutants-particulate matter (PM), ozone, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides. Similar issues are equally relevant to the hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) where chemical-specific health effect reference values are the best indicators of exposure limits; values which are often based on a lifetime of continuous exposure. A multi-agency, staff-level Air Sensors Health Group (ASHG) was convened in 2013. ASHG represents a multi-institutional collaboration of Federal agencies devoted to discovery and discussion of sensor technologies, interpretation of sensor data, defining the state of sensor-related science across each institution, and provides consultation on how sensors might effectively be used to meet a wide range of research and decision support needs. ASHG focuses on several fronts: improving the understanding of what hand-held sensor technologies may be able to deliver; communicating what hand-held sensor readings can provide to a number of audiences; the challenges of how to integrate data generated by multiple entities using new and unproven technologies; and defining best practices in communicating health-related messages to various audiences. This review summarizes the challenges, successes, and promising tools of those initial ASHG efforts and Federal agency progress
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 2005
A number of organizations have developed acute inhalation health reference values, each with (1) ... more A number of organizations have developed acute inhalation health reference values, each with (1) a specific purpose, (2) populations to protect, (3) exposure scenarios (accidental releases, workplace, routine excursions of ambient levels), and (4) severity of adverse health effects considered in their development. The first section of this article reviews the existing values from different organizations and describes their purposes and method of development. The second part of the article provides a comparative review of how the values were derived, the critical endpoints considered for each value, the populations being protected by each value, and the potential for use outside of their intended purpose (e.g., Homeland Security, regulatory analysis, etc.). Additionally, an analysis of the acute inhalation reference values that was developed in support of the Office of Air and Radiation's residual risk assessment for hazardous air pollutants is presented and reviewed. The third and final part of the article focuses on the efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a set of less-than-lifetime reference values, along with a discussion of how that effort fits with the existing sets of values described in the prior sections.
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Papers by George Woodall